Forex / Business news

NEW YORK (AP) - The nation's consumers, uninspired by this season's fashions and rattled by high gas prices and the weak housing market, shopped gingerly last month, extending the misery of retailers who have struggled with a spending slowdown since February...

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are likely to focus more on the problem of EADS' ownership and management structure than on its rapidly growing woes from a strong euro when they meet in Toulouse on Monday to discuss the company's future...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China will continue to monitor export receipts for fake transactions intended to disguise the entry of speculative funds, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said.In a statement posted on its website, SAFE said that as of end-April it has classified 5,775 companies to be "of concern" and whose foreign exchange dealings are under specific surveillance...

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - The European Commission said it has received support for further regulation of non-EU audit firms following a public consultation launched in January.Measures would regulate and supervise non-EU audit firms, as well as increase cooperation with competent authorities from non-EU countries...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic lawmakers on Thursday are expected to propose raising taxes on tobacco products to fund a health care program, potentially posing a threat to Philip Morris, Reynolds American Inc. and other cigarette maker investors.Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus is scheduled to release his proposal for expanding the government program that provides health care to 6 million children who don't qualify for Medicaid but whose families cannot afford insurance...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China is likely to tolerate above-forecast levels of monetary growth, apparently accepting that the strong economy will lead to some of its economic targets being surpassed, Deutsche Bank said.The People's Bank of China (PBoC) said M2 growth was 17...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Private equity firms that sell shares to the public should be designated as investment companies, a category that would have meant more regulation for Blackstone Group, Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday.Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said during a House hearing that the Securities and Exchange Commission made a mistake last month when it refused to classify the New York-based Blackstone as an investment firm before it proceeded with its initial public offering...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress did not appear in any hurry on Wednesday to raise taxes on private equity firms and their wealthy executives, nor to regulate hedge funds more closely.At a Senate hearing, industry warnings that higher taxes on private equity partnerships could dry up venture capital were heeded by lawmakers from states where finance and technology are key to the economy...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers on Wednesday said tighter regulation of hedge funds may be necessary to protect ordinary investors from unforseen losses.That was the consensus among many Democrats, and some Republicans, at a House hearing focused on Bush administration recommendations for managing the economic risks posed by hedge funds and their high-dollar cousins, private equity firms...

STRASBOURG, France (Thomson Financial) - Euro group president Jean-Claude Juncker said the widening pay gap between executives and employees is undermining calls from the European Central Bank and euro zone finance ministers for wage moderation."A large number of business leaders receive payments which do not correspond in any way to the repeated calls from the bank and the euro group for wage moderation," Juncker told the European Parliament...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Private equity and hedge funds will be in the spotlight again Wednesday as two congressional committees hold hearings on whether they should be more regulated.The hearings will focus on the risks the two types of funds pose to the financial markets and to individual investors...

BRUSSELS (Thomson Financial) - The European Commission's powerful antitrust policy came under fresh scrutiny today following two key judgments from the EU's second-highest court which ruled that the EU executive owes damages to Schneider Electric and imposed excessive restrictions on a rough diamond distribution agreement between Alrosa and De Beers...

BERNE (Thomson Financial) - The Swiss government will hold talks with the EU over new security rules saying 24 hours' notice must be given before sea containers are taken across the Swiss border, said Hermann Kaestli, deputy director of the Swiss customs directorate...

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) - German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck plans to propose adopting the EU's deficit rules for German legislation to keep public debt in check, Handelsblatt reported, citing Finance Ministry state secretary Karl Diller."Different departments here (at the Finance Ministry) are working on parallel concepts," Diller told the newspaper...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The UK's lower house of parliament will delay recommendations on how to handle the private equity sector until law-makers re-unite in October, according to a report in the Financial Times.The House of Commons' Treasury Select committee was expected to publish a scathing report on the industry before parliament's summer recess this month, but this is unlikely to happen as more hearings will be held...

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Poland's economy ministry wants to float all of the state-controlled companies in its coal sector on the Warsaw bourse, with the first offering to take place at the end of 2008 or start of 2009, a deputy minister was quoted as saying...

NEW YORK (AP) - Hours after Standard&Poor's warned it may cut the credit rating of more than $12 billion in bonds backed by risky home loans, another agency downgraded its rating on hundreds of similar securities.Both S&P and Moody's Investors Service said they made the moves because borrowers are missing mortgage payments at levels much higher than anticipated...

WASHINGTON (AP) - If News Corp.'s proposed $5 billion purchase of Dow Jones&Co. succeeds, antitrust lawyers predict it would sail through regulatory review because Rupert Murdoch's global media empire is not concentrated in any particular product or region...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Taking into account the mind-sets of both the public and investors about where prices are headed is a key factor for policymakers working to tame inflation, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Tuesday."Undoubtedly, the state of inflation expectations greatly influences actual inflation and thus the central bank's ability to achieve price stability," Bernanke said in a mostly academic speech to a conference of the National Bureau of Economic Research...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - The mother of a kidnapped U.S. contractor in Colombia said her son has made friends with his captors, learned to speak Spanish and is generally holding up well after more than four years as a hostage.Yet Jo Rosano was also told that the camp where her son Marc Gonsalves is being held is rigged with explosives to prevent any attempted military rescue...